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Major Christian leaders from Samuel Rodriguez to Russell Moore have called on the nation to pray as the White House mulls a solution to immigrant children who were illegally brought into the United States. The children, known as Dreamers, are part of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program created by former President Barack Obama in 2012. Last September, President Donald Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the end of DACA, citing March 5 as the deadline.

The Evangelical Immigration Table is calling on Christians to pray for those affected by the expiration of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

On Monday, the DACA program expired, six months after the Trump administration had announced that they were ending the program in the expectation that Congress enact legislation to help the children of illegal immigrants, known as Dreamers.

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WASHINGTON—Monday marks the deadline set by President Donald Trump to find a legislative solution for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, but recipients likely won’t feel any immediate effects. Trump announced the demise of DACA in September with a six-month delay for Congress to reach an agreement on how to replace the Obama-era program that protects immigrants brought to the country illegally as minors. Lawmakers failed to pass any immigration legislation despite bipartisan support to protect the 700,000 DACA recipients.

The Evangelical Immigration Table is calling on Christians to pray for those affected by the expiration of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

On Monday, the DACA program expired, six months after the Trump administration had announced that they were ending the program in the expectation that Congress enact legislation to help the children of illegal immigrants, known as Dreamers.

MISHAWAKA — About 150 people gathered at Bethel College for a program Monday called “Evangelicals for Dreamers” to show their support for open immigration.

“On the news, we are regularly told that evangelicals and Dreamers are at odds,” the Rev. David Cramer said of the young immigrants whose fate rests in the nation’s capital — whose legal status is protected by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. But evangelicals, he said, aren’t all “white conservatives who are opposed to open immigration.”

WASHINGTON — In 2006 and again in 2013, Republican moderates joined Democrats in the Senate to pass sweeping overhauls of the nation’s immigration laws with a pathway to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants, only to see the compromises torpedoed by a wave of angry activism in the conservative news media and grass roots.
This time, as senators again search for a way forward on immigration, a revolt from the right has so far failed to materialize, in large part because of the intransigence of a different player: a man in the White House who has mostly satisfied immigration hard-liners.

WASHINGTON (BP) — Southern Baptist voices are addressing the U.S. Senate’s current effort to resolve the fate of undocumented immigrants brought to this country as children.

Senators began yesterday (Feb. 14) moving toward votes on legislation to address the category of undocumented immigrants known as Dreamers, as well as other parts of the tangled web of immigration that Congress has failed to address in recent decades. The Senate is expected to make decisions on a series of amendments in an attempt to agree before the Presidents’ Day recess (Feb. 19-23) on a bill that will have the support of 60 senators and thereby overcome an effort to block passage under the chamber’s rules.

The Senate is deliberating as a critical deadline for Dreamers nears. On March 5, a program known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) — which has given about 800,000 people relief from deportation — will expire. If no legislative resolution is achieved by that date, an estimated 1,000 people a day will lose their protection from deportation. Two federal judges — one in New York and another in San Francisco — have temporarily blocked the Trump administration from ending DACA, however.

Faith leaders are ready to hear the President spell out his plans to fix immigration in his State of the Union speech tonight, but they’re hoping he won’t use the newly popular term “chain migration.”

Rev. Gabriel Salguero, president of the National Latino Evangelical Coalition has urged evangelicals to condemn the wording saying “the appropriate term is family unification, not chain migration. By changing the language many obfuscate the human toll of separating families.”

The government shutdown is over and Congress still hasn’t passed a Dream Act. There is a promise from Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell, that he will open the floor to debate and voting surrounding a “DACA solution.” Even so, there is no guarantee that the House would take up the bill. Our hope is members of Congress from Michigan will act with compassion and determination for those who are affected by the end of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. As Christians, we encourage lawmakers to act in a way that is consistent with the message of the Bible.

We write as a pastor of City Life Church, and as a “Dreamer” who works in Immigrant Connection, a low cost immigration legal services office that is a ministry of the church. Our perspective is one we learned from the Bible, that all people — regardless of country of origin — are created in the image of God. Because of that, each person should be treated with respect, love even, and given the opportunity to contribute in God’s good world.

Congressional wrangling and presidential commentary over a “DACA solution” have dominated headlines. In the midst of the news circus, though, we pray that those who represent Hoosiers in Washington will keep their focus on the people directly impacted by the termination of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. As Christians, our faith compels us to urge them to keep working for a solution consistent with biblical values.